THE END OF THE TOUR

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Artists are often lonely people. Not because they don’t want to be in the limelight, but because what they really crave is contact with other humans on their own level.

In James Ponsoldt’s The End of the Tour, Jesse Eisenberg plays David Lipsky, a Rolling Stone staff member looking for a real story to suit his talents. Jason Segel plays David Foster Wallace, a well-published author and the subject of Lipsky’s five-day Rolling Stone interview in 1996. Joan Cusack, Anna Chlumsky, and Mamie Gummer round out a brilliantly funny supporting cast.

Tour, based on David Lipsky’s book “Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself” is witty and shockingly honest. Eisenberg’s stock quirkiness plays very well against Segel’s brilliantly discomforting quietness.

The majority of the film is set in Bloomington, Illinois where Wallace keeps a home. The design team, especially Emma Potter and Yvette Granata, do such a great job of fleshing out Wallace and his surroundings, giving him that well-lived in look. Jakob Ihre’s cinematography emphasizes the shadowed delineation of Wallace’s house along with the majesty of winter in the Midwest. Music is another layer of this movie’s fabric. Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” is a focal point, but it is Danny Elfman’s score that is truly at the center. He is at his absolute best in this stellar score.

Life isn’t the mere sum of our parts. It is the sum of our experiences and the need for human stimulation that make this Tour absolutely worth your time.

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Published by Ben Cahlamer

2 Comments

An outstanding share! I have just forwarded this onto a colleague who had been conducting
a little research on this. And he actually bought me lunch due
to the fact that I stumbled upon it for him… lol. So
let me reword this…. Thanks for the meal!! But yeah, thanx for spending time to talk about this
subject here on your website.